EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9)
I don't claim to know much, but I do know I have a very sensitive mouth and have had a number of bad experiences on my road to smoking a pipe. This post is just hoping what is working for me perhaps resonates with someone struggling too.
1. Start with a tobacco that basically no-one seems to have issues with. I mean where everyone says you can puff like a freight train and not get bitten. You need a baseline tobacco. For me, it is Carter Hall and Peterson Old Dublin. For a while, avoid experimenting with tobacco and stick with the baseline. Search and ask around...I know people have posted lists of these baselines before.
2. Start with a decent pipe with a good open draw and a smallish bowl. Should give you a bit less than an hour of smoking time.
3. Use matches or hemp wick to light the pipe for quite a while. I am using a pretty thin hemp wick with great success and control. Beneroots Organic 1mm size. Yes...all this has to do with flame temp. I for one think it matters and even if I am wrong, it is just one more thing that is working for me, so I don't see changing.
4. Plan to relight the pipe a lot...don't worry about it. Get rid of the idea you will dump out a bowl full of ash at the end. You will probably dump out some dottle (maybe a lot at first) almost every time and the lower in the bowl you get and keep trying to relight, the more likely you are to scorch your mouth. So until you are having a positive experience smoking, I would not relight much lower than half way for a little while. It is baby steps and learning control. Even now, I am more careful relighting below half way just because I know that it is easier to draw too hard with that flame down there. Stove hot; finger hurt. We learn!
5. I am finding packing method is not as important as becoming one with the tamper. With that said, packing is still important and I find too tight and too loose are both equally bad. I now prefer to start a little too loose and use my tamper to get it drawing just right soon after my main light. I try to maintain that 'just right' draw as I smoke with my tamper. You really can see and feel the impact of tamping. Yes, it is easy to tamp too hard and put out the ember, but it is amazing how a light tamp makes the smoke thicker again and the draw responds by being slightly firmer when you do it.
6. This has helped me a huge amount...stay with me on this. I put a small amount of long-stranded, pretty neutral tobacco in the bottom of the bowl...something that will not easily compress and will stay open for air (I never use small bits of tobacco for this). This will very likely never get burned and becomes my throw-away dottle and air cushion. The importance of this though is that it allows the plug to breath from underneath and makes it easier for me to tamp without over-compressing the bottom. I am using lightly rubbed out Irish Flake right now just to use it up as I won't be smoking it long-term. Keep in mind it will probably never burn anyway and I have noticed no flavor from it ever.
Ok, so now I will walk through it all. I start with this air layer dottle in step 6. This will be springy and have distinct strands that don't want to easily close up. Right now, I then just lightly roll a plug of the main tobacco between 3 fingers and kind of shape it to the size I see the bowl is and just lightly put it in (a little twist, a little pressure...if the plug is too wide you will know as it won't go in easily). I usually pull bits off the top until I can do a light thumb-pad press and get it down below the rim. I test the draw...you need to know the pipe and how it draws empty...I am looking for just a tad firmer draw at this point. I do my charring light with hemp wick...I get it puffing pretty good and usually the top grows quite a bit. I tamp it back to where it was and light it again. I don't tend to draw continuously while lighting...I take quick, sharp puffs and produce lots of smoke at first. Now I just cadence puff and watch the smoke. Sometimes, my initial light is still not doing the trick and I have to tamp and light again, but eventually, it stays going and is producing nice smoke. When the same draw is producing thinner smoke, it usually needs a light tamp and it will stay going by itself. I often over do it and tamp it out and just relight again and try to learn the balance. It is a feedback thing...you can really tell when the smoke, the tamp, the heat of the bowl in your hand...it is all telling you how well that fire is feeding in there. Too loose, drawing too hard will heat up the bowl and the smoke has a character hard for me to describe but not good. Too hard, it will simply not stay lit for long and if I reach this point, I dump it all out and start over as it is hard to fix it once the draw is too hard. I may relight 5+ times on average still. Am I a great smoker?...no way. But I am learning and my brain is starting to connect actions I make to the result in the pipe and smoke and I am confident that over time I will get better and better at controlling my pipe and needing less relights...but for now, I am smoking once a day and my mouth is ok for the first time. I may only have a few tobaccos I can smoke forever due to my sensitive mouth, but that is ok. I can tell you, the smell of Old Dublin in my nose when smoking is intoxicating and if that was all I ever have...I'm a happy pipe smoker still.
Cheers,
jdb67
I don't claim to know much, but I do know I have a very sensitive mouth and have had a number of bad experiences on my road to smoking a pipe. This post is just hoping what is working for me perhaps resonates with someone struggling too.
1. Start with a tobacco that basically no-one seems to have issues with. I mean where everyone says you can puff like a freight train and not get bitten. You need a baseline tobacco. For me, it is Carter Hall and Peterson Old Dublin. For a while, avoid experimenting with tobacco and stick with the baseline. Search and ask around...I know people have posted lists of these baselines before.
2. Start with a decent pipe with a good open draw and a smallish bowl. Should give you a bit less than an hour of smoking time.
3. Use matches or hemp wick to light the pipe for quite a while. I am using a pretty thin hemp wick with great success and control. Beneroots Organic 1mm size. Yes...all this has to do with flame temp. I for one think it matters and even if I am wrong, it is just one more thing that is working for me, so I don't see changing.
4. Plan to relight the pipe a lot...don't worry about it. Get rid of the idea you will dump out a bowl full of ash at the end. You will probably dump out some dottle (maybe a lot at first) almost every time and the lower in the bowl you get and keep trying to relight, the more likely you are to scorch your mouth. So until you are having a positive experience smoking, I would not relight much lower than half way for a little while. It is baby steps and learning control. Even now, I am more careful relighting below half way just because I know that it is easier to draw too hard with that flame down there. Stove hot; finger hurt. We learn!
5. I am finding packing method is not as important as becoming one with the tamper. With that said, packing is still important and I find too tight and too loose are both equally bad. I now prefer to start a little too loose and use my tamper to get it drawing just right soon after my main light. I try to maintain that 'just right' draw as I smoke with my tamper. You really can see and feel the impact of tamping. Yes, it is easy to tamp too hard and put out the ember, but it is amazing how a light tamp makes the smoke thicker again and the draw responds by being slightly firmer when you do it.
6. This has helped me a huge amount...stay with me on this. I put a small amount of long-stranded, pretty neutral tobacco in the bottom of the bowl...something that will not easily compress and will stay open for air (I never use small bits of tobacco for this). This will very likely never get burned and becomes my throw-away dottle and air cushion. The importance of this though is that it allows the plug to breath from underneath and makes it easier for me to tamp without over-compressing the bottom. I am using lightly rubbed out Irish Flake right now just to use it up as I won't be smoking it long-term. Keep in mind it will probably never burn anyway and I have noticed no flavor from it ever.
Ok, so now I will walk through it all. I start with this air layer dottle in step 6. This will be springy and have distinct strands that don't want to easily close up. Right now, I then just lightly roll a plug of the main tobacco between 3 fingers and kind of shape it to the size I see the bowl is and just lightly put it in (a little twist, a little pressure...if the plug is too wide you will know as it won't go in easily). I usually pull bits off the top until I can do a light thumb-pad press and get it down below the rim. I test the draw...you need to know the pipe and how it draws empty...I am looking for just a tad firmer draw at this point. I do my charring light with hemp wick...I get it puffing pretty good and usually the top grows quite a bit. I tamp it back to where it was and light it again. I don't tend to draw continuously while lighting...I take quick, sharp puffs and produce lots of smoke at first. Now I just cadence puff and watch the smoke. Sometimes, my initial light is still not doing the trick and I have to tamp and light again, but eventually, it stays going and is producing nice smoke. When the same draw is producing thinner smoke, it usually needs a light tamp and it will stay going by itself. I often over do it and tamp it out and just relight again and try to learn the balance. It is a feedback thing...you can really tell when the smoke, the tamp, the heat of the bowl in your hand...it is all telling you how well that fire is feeding in there. Too loose, drawing too hard will heat up the bowl and the smoke has a character hard for me to describe but not good. Too hard, it will simply not stay lit for long and if I reach this point, I dump it all out and start over as it is hard to fix it once the draw is too hard. I may relight 5+ times on average still. Am I a great smoker?...no way. But I am learning and my brain is starting to connect actions I make to the result in the pipe and smoke and I am confident that over time I will get better and better at controlling my pipe and needing less relights...but for now, I am smoking once a day and my mouth is ok for the first time. I may only have a few tobaccos I can smoke forever due to my sensitive mouth, but that is ok. I can tell you, the smell of Old Dublin in my nose when smoking is intoxicating and if that was all I ever have...I'm a happy pipe smoker still.
Cheers,
jdb67
Last edited by a moderator:
